The Later Taurokathapsia Series

CNG 90, Lot: 40. Estimate $150. Sold for $170. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Larissa. Circa 460-420 BC. AR Drachm (20mm, 5.54 g, 10h). Thessalos, petasos and cloak tied at neck, holding band across horns of bull right / Horse running right, trailing reins, within incuse square; (retrograde R)ΑΛ above, Ι below. Lorber, Thessalian 7-8 var. (legend arrangement); BCD Thessaly II 355.1 var. (same). Near VF, toned, a few surface marks and light scratches, some roughness on obverse.

From the BCD Collection.

The taurokathapsia was a form of bull fighting that was popular at many games in the ancient Greek world, and particularly in Crete and Thessaly. Scenes of this event are depicted on coins from various cities of Thessaly, but it is especially prevalent in the 5th century BC coinage at Larissa, which provides much of the current evidence about the taurokathapsia today. In the Thessalian version of the event, a man on horseback was to chase down and subdue a bull. He first rode alongside the running bull, then grabbed the bull by the horns and jumped from his steed onto the back of the bull. Still holding the horns, the rider then dismounted the bull, and attempted to wrestle it to the ground. A detailed account of this type of taurokathapsia scene is described in Heliodoros, Aeth. 10, 28-30. Interestingly, the early phase of the event is not depicted on the coins at Larissa, but can be seen on rare issues of Atrax (BCD Thessaly II 53), where the rider is pursuing the bull, and the Thessalian League (BCD Thessaly II 897), where the rider is shown moving from his horse to the bull.

The later taurokathapsia coinage at Larissa was quite extensive and can be grouped into phases. The first phase, comprising both drachms and hemidrachms, is characterized by the reverse type being in an incuse square. It lasted from circa 460-420 BC, during which time the style of the coins evolved quite dramatically from an archaized to a more realistic, classical form. This first phase appears to consist of three distinct groups. The first group exhibits an archaized style, including an archaic form of rho (lots 40-45). The second group exhibits an early classical style, while still retaining some archaic elements, although the rho now changes to its classical form (lots 46-53). The third group has a fully-developed classical style with naturalistic elements, most recognizable by the cloak of the horseman, which changes from a static hanging form to a flowing form that displays the action of the scene (lots 54-60). The second phase was much shorter, running from circa 420-400 BC, and appears to have consisted only of drachms. These coins continue the naturalistic form from the end of the first phase, but the reverse type is now within a shallow incuse circle (lots 61-62), or no incuse at all. Coins of this phase are reverse die-linked to the earliest coins of the following series, where a portrait of the nymph Larissa replaces the taurokathapsia scene on the obverse (cf. lot 66 below).